Anne Miles is the owner and Toad-in-Chief at Red Toad Media. A trained graphic designer, Anne's strength lies in her ability to translate messages to the web through user interface design, web graphic and interactive design, web copywriting and social media marketing. Anne has designed everything from software interfaces to children's books. She has taught college courses and also worked as a multimedia specialist for a Fortune 500 Company. She has designed for a wide range of clients, small and large. She lives and works on the outskirts of Louisville, Kentucky.

Games are becoming more Web-like, and the Web is becoming more game-like. If you need proof of this, you have only to look at Yahoo Answers. Random questions are posed, the top answer is chosen, and credibility points are given to the winner. It's a ranking system that accumulates and unlocks more and more features within the system. It works because of the psychology of achievement and game mechanics and thus encourages interaction.

This raises the question, what can a Web designer learn from games, or — more specifically — video games? Good game interfaces have to be highly usable and intuitive, capable of handling a lot of repetitive actions in the fewest clicks possible. They need to be attractive and engaging. They need to be likeable. A good game interface adds to and enhances the user’s experience. In a game, people want the content delivered to them in a way that doesn’t break the fantasy. Any dissonance with the interface will cause an otherwise great game to fail.

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